


Per Aspera Ad Astra

by Melusine11



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Astronomy, Budding Romance, But Just 2, F/M, Flashbacks, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Heart-to-Heart, I tried to keep myself in check, Light Angst, Meddling mothers, Mention of Death, Observatory, science talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-13 05:57:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16011698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melusine11/pseuds/Melusine11
Summary: Rey Niima was the newest Computer hire at 'Starkiller Base' on the Harvard Campus, she had heard the rumors, but she hadn't made it this far in her career by letting what other people had to say deter her. Of course, that in no way prepared her for coming face to face with Professor Kylo Ren. A terror of a boss, by all accounts, a monster, but Rey will not deterred.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> We made it! This story would not exist without a whole team of people. All of the Mods over at the Reylo FanFiction Anthology, everyone in the discord, and Reylomancy who initially gave this a Beta and helped shape this into a fuller story. Also Annie Jump Cannon, an incredible woman, who I encourage you all to check out. This story is loosely inspired by the incredible work she did and the life she lived.

_For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream._ \- Vincent Van Gogh

* * *

It was quite early in the day, but the streets around the Harvard Observatory campus were already bustling with people walking and riding bicycles, despite the cold and threat of snow that accompanied the early days of March. The sun was nothing but a blurry halo of light behind the low hanging clouds and Rey needed to hurry if she was going to make it on time. Today would be her first day here, and she was eager to make an excellent impression

“Excuse me?” Rey approached a man smoking and watching a horse-drawn streetcar thunder by on the street corner and smiled up at him. “I’m looking for ‘Building C’, do you think you could point me in the right direction? It’s my first time here,” she tacked on quickly.

“Starkiller Base?” the man scoffed. “You’ll find it two blocks in that direction.” He pointed and took a long drag from his cigarette. “Good luck, little lady. Lord knows you’ll need it with Professor Ren.”

“Thank you,” Rey said, smiling at him and taking off in the direction indicated. _Of course_ she had heard the rumors about where she would be working. That it had a ridiculous nickname and that the man who was in charge there had chased away more people from working with him than were currently staffed on this part of campus. “Seems at least half of it’s true,” Rey mused quietly to herself as she crossed the street and down the road to the front doors of ‘Starkiller Base’.

Rey smiled up at the building, moving slightly out of the way of passing bodies. She had spent years of her life struggling, learning, pushing through where not many others had. Indeed, she was the very first woman to graduate from her alma mater, a fact that had brought her mother immense pride and greatly increased the chances of her launching into lengthy speeches about her daughter at any passing mention by an acquaintance. 

Gathering the skirts of her favorite work dress, the light blue one with velvet stitching, a perfectly bustled skirt and buttons that ran from neck to navel, up in one hand, Rey quickly ascended the massive stairs that led to the building in which she’d be working. Rey hadn’t made it this far in life by letting other people's opinions deter her from going after what she wanted. She would simply find out for herself if the rumors proved to be true, and if they did, well, she was confident she could weather that storm too.

She knocked on the door with a quick ‘rat-a-tat-tat’ then stepped back, smoothing out her skirts as she stood to wait. She barely had time to admire the slope of the observatory roof where it rose to the side of the building before the door swung open.

Rey quickly decided, whatever people had to say about Kylo Ren, they all left out how handsome he was. She desperately hoped her cheeks were not as red as the warmth suddenly flooding them led her to believe. He was tall, certainly taller than most men Rey had met in her life, and broad shouldered to match. His hair was dark brown, nearly black as it hung down low enough to just cover the tops of his ears and looking just-ran-a-hand-through-it tousled. Clean shaven, with a hint of stubble around plush lips, and dark circles under his warm brown eyes led Rey to believe he hadn’t slept much the previous night, if at all. Despite that, his dark grey coattail jacket was in pristine condition and his pants were perfectly pressed while the slightly loosened collar of his shirt let to an air of relaxed study. Surely sleep deprivation had never looked so good. She tried to ignore his scrutiny of her own person, and the niggling suspicion in the back of her head that she had met him somewhere before.

“Can I help you?” Rey jolted at the low timbre of his voice. 

“I’m Rey Niima.” She fished her paperwork from her bag. “I’m here to fill the position of computer. Amilyn Holdo should have mentioned me.”

“You’re Rey Niima?” he asked, seeming somewhat surprised.

“Yes.”

He looked like he wanted to say something more, but stepped back instead. “I’m terribly sorry, you’re younger than I imagined you to be with your list of credentials. Please, come in.” The door swung shut after her, and Rey glanced around. 

“I’m Professor Kylo Ren.” Rey looked up at him and took his proffered hand, giving it a quick shake. 

“It’s a pleasure. I read your paper on Binary Stars, and I’ve been hoping to meet you ever since.” She watched as his shoulders tensed but she barreled on. “Getting the job here was purely circumstantial though. Miss. Holdo said she would recommend me to where my efforts would be most needed.”

Kylo grunted and strode off, waving at her to follow. “We are rather backed up on cataloging the star plates. Most of the candidates Ms. Holdo recommends are abysmal, but as I said, your credentials were impressive. Hopefully you’re up to the challenge.”

Rey stepped into the long hall, pushing the door shut behind her and nearly ran to catch the long strides of Professor Ren. Several doors lined the hall with one large open doorway leading into a library, making Rey slow her steps to get a better look at it.

“This way, Miss Niima. There will be plenty of time to ogle the library later,” Professor Ren called, now standing outside of a door and clearly impatient.

“Right, sorry.” Rey rushed, feeling her cheeks warm with a blush as she turned from the books just waiting to be read and made her way to where her new boss waited. 

“I think,” he drawled, a smirk teasing at the corners of his mouth, “that what’s beyond this door is far more pleasing to the eye.” His hand fell to the knob and twisted, hesitating for just a moment before he pushed it open fully and Rey felt her breath escape her all in an instant.

“Oh,” she gasped, her eyes barely taking in the scattered tables and the handful of workers before the focused on the gleaming bronze of the telescope that hovered above them all. A great wooden ladder stood off to the side, just waiting to be used. “She’s magnificent,” Rey said, and beside her Kylo puffed up with pride.

“The best telescope this side of the Atlantic, which upsets Professor Dameron to no end. There will be time to meet him, I’m sure. He’s in charge of the other observatory on campus, much smaller.” Rey only hummed in response before he stepped into the room. “Everyone, your attention please. This is Miss Niima, she will be joining us as a computer. I expect you to give her a warm welcome and show her the caliber of work I expect.” Three pairs of eyes peered up from what they were working on to look at Rey and she gave a small smile in return. “If you need me, I’ll be in my office,” he said with finality before striding the length of the room and disappearing through yet another door.

“You get used to it,” Rey turned towards the voice and found herself smiling at the young man that appeared to be close to her in age, with an easy smile and kind eyes. “I’m Finn. Finn Storm, this pasty ginger is Armitage Hux, nearly as moody as the boss, and this elegant Amazon is Eleanor Phasma-”

“Please, just call me Phasma. My mother’s name is Eleanor, my _grandmother’s_ name is Eleanor too, if you can believe it. On both sides, honestly, what are the odds - do _not_ answer that Armitage.”

The redhead's mouth snapped shut and he exhaled heavily through his nose, “I won’t, but I’ll have you know that I know the answer.”

“You cannot possibly know the answer to that, not an exact one at any rate.”

“We will never know now, will we? You can call me Hux, new star girl, and _welcome_ , to Starkiller Base.”

“Ignore him!” Finn and Phasma nearly shouted in unison.

“It’s Rey,” she said with a nod, taking Hux in. If she had thought Professor Ren looked well put together, Armitage Hux put him to shame. He was dressed head to toe in black, with gleaming brass buttons lining his vest and a shine to his shoes that could probably reflect her face if she cared to look close enough. “So, where do I start?”

“How about a proper tour?” Finn asked. “It can be a bit of a maze in the stacks until you’re used to it, best get started early.”

“The stacks?” Rey asked, watching as he stood from his table.

“It’s where we file the star plates.” He waved at the far side of the room. “These are all of the ones that haven’t been catalogued yet, but once they are done we tag them all and file them appropriately. Come this way and I’ll show you.”

He led her from the room through a different door and they crossed the hall to enter another room. This room was easily twice the size of the observatory room they had just left, and was filled with nothing but rows of shelves.

“These are some of the first plates to be classified. Professor Ren worked on them with his advisor, Doctor Snoke, but when he died a few years ago Professor Ren took over and initiated the computer program. I’m sure you know all of this though.”

“I don’t, actually,” Rey murmured, gently pulling a star plate from the closest shelf. A line of tape was on the edge, marking the coordinates of the picture with two sets of initials signed to it. “I’ve certainly heard wild rumors regarding Dr. Snoke, but it all seems so unbelievable.” She traced her fingers over a cluster of stars, dark grey on the glass plate.

“No one knows the whole truth except for Professor Ren, and he’s refused to talk about it or the accident,” Finn said quietly, taking the plate from her and returning it to its place. “Come on, let me show you the rest of the stacks. Things used to be organized solely by date, but now we organize by date but also location, so we have tried to accommodate for that, and left plenty of space for new plates.”

“How many stars have you categorized?” Rey asked, following him through the dimly lit room.

“Oh, not many, just over a thousand, I think?”

“Not many?” she exclaimed.

Finn laughed. “The Professor is almost at 100,000, but he’s been doing less since he took over here, so it’s impressive, but not as impressive as it could be.” He opened a door placed halfway through the room. “The library. Obviously it’s partial towards what we do, but there are a few gems in here if you ever want to read when your brain needs a rest from actual work.”

Finn showed Rey a handful more rooms, the restrooms, and a few smaller office spaces, one occupied by several more computers who were happy to see Finn and meet someone new before they quickly got back to work.

“You get used to it,” Finn said yet again. “Professor Ren has high standards and expects the best and for everyone to churn out consistent numbers. Once you establish what you can do, if you don’t go through enough plates in a week he pulls you in for a review. Most computers end up fired.”

“Seems a bit harsh,” Rey mused, following Finn back to the main observatory room.

“It’s Professor Ren,” he said again, as if this explained everything to a new person like Rey. It did not. “We used to not work in here, because of the telescope, but we’ve expanded staff a lot lately and haven’t the room to accommodate everyone, so we’ll be in here. Everyone is on rotation for telescope cleaning. If you’re really lucky, or you’re just really good at your job, Professor Ren might select you for nighttime records. Which means you actually get to use the telescope.” He leaned in, almost as if he was telling her some great secret, and Rey found herself smiling.

“Back already?” Hux asked, not bothering to look up from what he was doing.

“It’s not that large of a building,” Finn countered.

“Didn’t show her the best places to have a cry for when the Professor shouts about sloppy work then?” Phasma looked up and gave a fake frown. “If the bathroom is ever full, I find hiding in the back of the library helps, no one ever goes there.”

“Ah, thank you? I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Rey took a deep breath before clasping her hands together in front of her. “So, where do I start?”

* * *

By the following week Rey was confident enough to go at it alone. Finn had handed her her assigned plates that Friday morning and informed them all that Professor Ren would be in meetings all day. Hux took this as his cue to slack off and casually catalog before opting to polish the telescope during the afternoon.

“I really hope Professor Ren comes back early and catches you,” Phasma drawled, leaning back in her chair and stretching her arms high above her head. “Didn’t he almost fire you just last month for this exact thing?”

“Ren can’t fire me,” Hux scoffed.

“Hmmm, yes, almost forgot. Must be nice, to have such an important daddy.” Phasma leaned across the small aisle towards the table where Rey was diligently making notes. “Armie’s father is on the board. Despite him knowing what to do, I’m very convinced he wouldn’t have this job if it weren’t for his father.”

“Yes, that’s exactly -”

“Armitage.” Professor Ren’s voice cut through the room, and Rey watched as Hux froze in place on the ladder. “I believe she was just cleaned two weeks ago and isn’t due for another cleaning any time soon. Do you care to explain what you’re doing up there when we still have an extreme backlog of plates to go through?”

“I - well, you see, there was a smudge, and it was extremely distracting, and I just thought -”

“Thought that you would disobey my explicit directions, just because Finn gave them to you?”

“You know that has nothing to do with it.” He cambered down the ladder and turned to Finn, “I respect you, you know this, right?”

Finn lifted a brow and Rey found herself chewing on her lip as she watched the exchange. Finn was one of the first black men to graduate from Harvard, and certainly to first to hold a job in the Harvard Observatory. He deserved respect, Rey thought watching Hux fidget under the stares of both Professor Ren and Finn.

“I respect Finn, however, I do not -”

“I would advise you not to finish that sentence, Armitage,” Kylo sneered, arms crossing against his chest as he moved to lean against the door frame. “You are under the illusion that you’re still here because of your father. You are not. I would be more than happy to fire you, and your father wouldn’t give a damn or come to my office demanding I change my mind. No, he would only be disappointed in you.” He pushed himself away from the door and quickly closed it. “Armitage, you are still here because, despite your abysmal attitude, you are one of the best minds out there. You have a gift for this, and I won’t see it squandered away. So get your act together, or I will fire you. Miss Niima is already proving her worth, and if I were you, I might be worried.”

Rey watched wide-eyed as Kylo turned to her, giving what she thought might pass as a smile before he passed through the room and into his office, leaving Hux, mouth gaping like a fish, staring after him. 

“Well, that was pleasant!” Phasma piped up after several moments of silence. “I for one cannot wait until I can go home and spend several days away from all of you.”

“You better not try to take my job, star girl,” Hux huffed, throwing himself into his chair.

Rey rolled her eyes and Phasma scoffed. “You both have the same job. If anything, the atmosphere would end up just a sight bit more pleasant without your face around.”

Hux bristled, but stalked quickly to his work table before swiftly sitting down, glaring across at Phasma, who pointedly turned to look down at her work. Rey caught Finn’s eye for a moment and his eyebrows lifted while Rey shook her head, smothering a laugh into the palm of her hand.

Rey’s hands were restless, the pencil trapped between her ring and pinky fingers of her right hand tapping against the tabletop while her left hand lifted the corner of her notebook before gently releasing it, letting the paper skim the pads of her fingers as it fell. She was reviewing a star plate that one of the girls in the other room had handed in before being fired not long after. All of her work was now under review, and it was tedious.

“Miss Niima,” Kylo called, and Rey looked up to find the professor leaning against the door frame to his office. “A word, please,” he said, before turning and retreating into his sanctum.

Hux’s smile was manic as she passed him and Rey sent him a glare before hurrying towards the office.

“Close the door,” Kylo said as soon as she stepped foot inside. “Then have a seat.”

Rey did as instructed and sat, dreading what might be coming.

“How are you finding the work thus far, Miss Niima?” he asked as he shuffled some papers around on his desk.

“Oh, I love it!” she declared, leaning forward on her chair to smile at Professor Ren, “I love the challenge, I love finding new things, I don’t even mind doing the reviews.”

“How are those going?” Kylo asked, gaze intent on her and Rey struggled not to squirm in her seat.

“Slow, if I’m being honest.” She leaned back and looked out the window behind him, contemplating her next words. “If I may be so bold, you were right to fire her.”

“There are a lot of errors then?”

“A fair amount, yes.”

Rey watched as he began shifting papers around on his desk again, before pulling one out and placing it at the center. “Very well, you will be taking over cataloging from Armitage if you feel you are up to it?” He glanced up at her and Rey was quick to nod. “Good, please send him in after you and be sure to switch your work stations. No sense in moving all of those plates now, worry about it in the morning.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied, standing, flicking the hen of her skirts around as she turned to leave. “Oh,” she breathed, catching sight of the painting taking up the space on the wall immediately to the left of the door.

“Do you like it?” Professor Ren asked, and Rey looked over her shoulder at him to find him studying both the image and her from his desk.

“It’s beautiful.” She smiled, turning back. It was an inverted star plate, black background and white stars, blown up, and recaptured meticulously by an artist. “ _Alpha Andromedae,_ ” she supplied easily, and heard the Professor hum behind her. Rey took another moment to linger before the painting before remembering she had work to do. “Sorry, I shall go and fetch Hux.”

“Good day, Miss Niima,” his voice was quiet as it floated after her as she left his office, and Rey decided that Professor Ren wasn’t nearly as bad as people claimed him to be.


	2. Chapter 2

Rey is eight, and she has tried to learn piano, attempted her hand at art, and then there was the brief, failed stint with the knitting needles, but she just isn’t good at any of these things. Not the way young girls were supposed to be good at such things. She finds little joy in these hobbies, too. But the things Rey does find joy in, oh, they’re innumerable. 

She lies back in the grass of the open field beyond her house. Rey has lived here almost her whole life with Ben and Satine Kenobi. She didn’t remember her parents at all, but her godparents told her about them when she asked. They had died of the fever and she had been lucky to escape; even luckier to have people who could take her in. The Kenobis have a large plot of land not far from the coast in Massachusetts, a far cry from the city of Boston, which is where she was born. Ben and Satine had taken her there last summer; she had hated it, with its crowds of stuffy people, and the clatter of carriages as the hurried along over the cobbles. Business happened in the streets, men yelling across at one another, while in the distance bells tolled on the ships in the harbor. 

It’s quiet here, and the sky is clear and beautiful tonight. Perfect conditions for stargazing. She knows all the constellations by name, can trace their patterns in the heavens even with her eyes squeezed shut. She knows their mythos better than she knows her assigned Bible verses for the week. Rey loves stars, wishes she could capture one and keep it with her always, to remind her in some small way that she’s not alone.

“What are you doing?” Ben’s face appears overhead, his long dark hair swinging down to frame his face. It splits into a crooked smile as Rey screams.

“Don’t _do_ that, Benjamin Organa-Solo!” Rey cries, springing up from the ground with her hands on her hips. Never mind that he towers a good foot or so over her, she won’t back down.

“I thought you heard me coming,” he says by way of apology. “I wasn’t quiet.” He observes her in that intense way of his. “What were you doing?”

“Just looking at the stars,” she sighs, sinking back down. She grips onto his hand, bringing him to the ground with her. “Wanna hear a story?” she asks, turning her head to take in his profile.

“You have a new one?” He turns to her, his gaze bright even in the darkness of night. “Tell me,” he rushes out, squeezing the hand that still holds his.

“All right.” She lifts her free hand to trace a constellation. “Andromeda. The chained lady—you see her? Right next to Pegasus? In _fact,_ one of her stars is part of his constellation. The brightest one: _Alpha Andromedae_. Anyway, the story goes that Andromeda was beautiful. So beautiful that her mother bragged about it, to probably everyone, until word reached the Nereids. I mean, she was a queen, so I guess royal word really got around.” She ignores Ben’s snort of laughter and keeps talking. 

“The Nereids got really mad, because everyone _knew_ they were the most beautiful beings, so they talked to Poseidon, and he decided that they were right, and commanded one of his sea monsters to attack Andromeda’s kingdom. Her dad freaked out, and some idiot oracle told him he had to sacrifice his daughter for his kingdom’s safety. And he did. Can you believe that?” She turns to look at Ben, and he quickly shakes his head. 

“Is that it?” he asks after a moment.

“Oh, no. Her father sacrificed her to this sea monster, who chained her to a rock by the sea. Then Perseus showed up.”

“He’s the guy who tricked Medusa, right?”

Rey beams at him. “You _do_ listen!”

“Of course I listen!” he says, sounding put out.

She squeezes his hand. “Sometimes I just can’t tell. So Perseus. He saved her, and then they fell in love, got married, and had a million kids together.”

“That doesn’t sound accurate.”

“Maybe not a million,” Rey concedes. “It was just a lot. Then they founded the city of Mycenae together, which as you know was a huge city for Greece.”

“I actually didn’t know that.”

“Do you even pay attention when you have lessons?” She rolls over to look at him better and catches his gaze. “You’ve been having them for years longer than me…”

“Exactly. I’ve had more time to forget them. If I ever did in fact learn about Mycenae...”

Rey looks unimpressed and unconvinced. “After Andromeda died, Athena placed her in the sky, to honor her, and she’s still there.”

“It’s not like she can actually go anywhere.”

“Don’t be rude.” Rey tilts their arms so their entwined hands bump gently against his chest, and he laughs.

“Sorry. Thanks for the story.” He moves to stand, pulling her reluctantly up with him. “You should sneak back inside, you need sleep.”

“Do I though?” she asks, tilting her head back to look at the stars again.

Ben laughs as he twines their arms together one more time before nudging her towards her house. She turns and waves goodbye to him at the foot of the trellis that will take her back up to her room, and she sees his hand lift before he turns to jog back to his own house. 

* * *

“All I’m saying is that it would be nice to get some acknowledgment once in a while, instead of the usual silence or beratement,” Hux snapped, moving star plates around with jerky movements.

“I’d rather be ignored. Oh, give me those if you’re going to handle them like a brute. Remember what happened last time one got broken?” Phasma reprimanded, confiscating everything from the red-headed man to place at her own station for organization.

“No one has heard from Mitaka since.” Finn sighed dramatically from where he was stationed at the telescope, wiping it down with a cloth. “What do you think happened to him?”

Rey rolled her eyes as she made her notes. This was a daily occurrence, and at this point she just tuned them all out. Her coworkers all had pet theories on what happened to the people who were fired. The most popular one was that their bodies were stashed in the abandoned campus building across the street from them. The second most popular was that Kylo gave them all slow acting poisons and they died at home. Rey once told them she had seen Celia, their old coworker at the market over a weekend, and they all told her she had seen a ghost. Rey had huffed out a sigh, scooped up her completed plates, and made her way to the filing cabinets in a different room to avoid them all.

Phasma turned to look at Rey as Hux finished today’s elaborate theory of pure nonsense. “What about you, star girl?” she asked.

“Hmm? Oh.” Rey made a final note on her current plate, and then looked up to address the three of them. “I’m sure Mitaka is fine. He said something about his wife being pregnant and him going to get a job with her father. He’s a cobbler. Mitaka always seemed to be the type of person who does best with order, and an apprenticeship would be good for him, less stressful than here. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to turn these in for review,” she said, gathering up her work.

“How many plates have you finished today?” Hux sneered at her.

“Why don’t you worry about your own work for once, Hux?” Kylo’s voice came from the doorway that separated their workspace from his office. Finn smothered a laugh in his shoulder, and the ladder he was perched on wavered.

“Steady.” Rey moved quickly, reflex borne from habit within the walls of the observatory, and shifted her plates under an arm so she could grip the sides of the ladder as it wobbled. 

“Thanks, Rey.” Finn grinned down at her and she flashed him one to match. “I’m almost done up here, if you don’t mind waiting for me to finish up?”

“Of course,” Rey replied, leaning over to set the plates she had been holding down, while everyone actively ignored Hux’s grumblings as he got back to work.

Less than five minutes later Finn dismounted the ladder and gave Rey a dramatic bow, “Thank you, milady.”

“You’re welcome, sir. Now if you will excuse me, I have plates to file.”

“Don’t get lost,” Finn called after her as she picked her completed plates back up and made her way across the room and into the hall.

“Rey Kenobi, is that you?” a voice called from down the hall as soon as she was through the door.

Startled, Rey fumbled with the plates she was carrying for a terrifying moment before she regained her balance and spun to face the person who called her.

“Mrs. Organa-Solo!” Rey felt almost dizzy with the surprise of seeing the woman here of all places.

“Come here, dear, let me get a look at you.” Leia waved a hand at her and Rey settled the plates on a small table in the hall before stepping towards the woman. Leia looked even more glamorous than Rey’s hazy memory of the woman, dressed in a tan walking suit, with an intricate lace overlay around the waist of the dress as well as running down the center pleat of the skirts. Her hair was pulled up neatly under a wide brim hat, and Rey smiled at the small pin on her jacket adorned with the letters A.W.S.A. “Oh! You are a vision, look at you. You look just like your mother did when she was your age.”

“You knew my real mother?” Rey asked.

“Of course, of course, both your mother, godmother, and I went to all sorts of social gatherings together when we were younger. Raised quite the ruckus, if I do say so myself,” she dramatically whispered with a smile before sobering. “I was sorry to hear of your godfather's passing, he was a dear friend.”

“Thank you,” Rey said, and for the first time in a long time, really meant it. Leia had actually known her godfather. “I really shouldn’t linger, but do you need help finding anyone?”

Leia laughed. “I’m here to visit my son, he knows to expect me.”

Rey smiled as her brain worked; she only knew of one son that Leia had, and Ben Organa-Solo didn’t work here. “Very well, if you’ll—”

“Mother,” Kylo’s voice rumbled from behind her, and Rey’s brain stopped, before jumping quickly over the implications. “Bothering my employees again? I thought we discussed this last time, when you spent an hour recruiting Miss. Phasma to your cause.”

“Honestly, Ben,” Leia sighed as she smiled up at Rey before turning to look at Kylo. “Always so dramatic. I cannot believe you haven’t told me Rey works here now.”

Rey turned, eyes wide to find Kylo— _Ben_ —Kylo now looking between the two of them, expression matching her own for the briefest of moments before he schooled his features and nodded. “Of course she does, she’s been here six months now, and does some of our best work.”

She tried not to flush under the blatant compliment as she picked up her slides.

Leia sighed at her son. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you. I would have come to visit much sooner if I had known. I apologize for my son, Rey, I swear we raised him with better manners.”

“I’m sure,” Rey smiled. “Although his manners these days sometimes leave much to be desired,” she laughed lightly while tucking the slides to her chest. Leia and Kylo looked startled for a moment before Leia began to laugh, reaching out to grasp Rey’s hand. Rey met Kylo’s gaze once more and found his lips twisting into a barely-there grin. His mouth moved, looking like he wanted to speak, but Rey beat him to it. “Well, I don’t want to keep you. It was nice seeing you again!” she said quickly, not wanting to get a lecture on proper ways to talk about your boss in front of his mother. “I’m visiting my mother this weekend, I’ll tell her you said hello.”

“That would be wonderful, tell her she’s always more than welcome to come visit.” Leia beamed.

“I will.” Rey smiled a bit. “She’s been talking about having a get-together in a few weeks, like she and Dad always used to do to celebrate the start of summer. I’m sure she would be thrilled if you came.” Rey saw Kylo shift and she took a step away from mother and son. “I’ll have her write you.”


	3. Chapter 3

Rey was deep in the filing room when Kylo’s voice suddenly came from behind her, making her jump and nearly drop the plate she was filing.

“Professor Ren, I apologize, I didn’t hear you enter,” she said quickly, turning to face him, before turning back to put the plate down on top of the cabinet so she didn’t almost drop it again. “I’ve almost finished with the—”

“Miss Niima.” He was frowning at her, and for a fleeting moment Rey feared she really was going to get that lecture. “I must apologize.”

“Whatever for?” 

“For not recognizing you sooner, of course.”

This startled a laugh from Rey, and Kylo frowned at her again, clasping his hands together behind his back. “There’s no need. We met a handful of times over the summer twenty years ago, why would I expect you to recognize me? I certainly didn’t recognize you. Besides, it’s better this way. I wouldn’t want anyone thinking I was getting special treatment because I knew you briefly when you were ten.” She brushed the fringe from her eyes and smiled at him. “So, does your mother visit here often?”

“As often as she can manage,” he said after a beat of surprise. “May I inquire as to why you do not use your given name for your research?”

Rey crossed her arms in front of her chest and smirked. “I _am_ using my given name for my research. Why aren’t you, _Ben Organa-Solo?_ ”

He flinched slightly at the name, and Rey felt a frown tugging at the corners of her mouth. “It’s a long story,” he evaded, eyes casting about the room to avoid her direct stare. “I always thought your name was Rey Kenobi.”

“Not legally. The Kenobi’s were - _are_ my godparents. When I was younger it was easier to just use the same last name as them. Less awkward questions.” She huffed a laugh. “I’m a little surprised you didn’t recognize me; how many women do you know named Rey?”

Kylo’s lips curled up in a slight smile. “Just you,” he told her gently. “I didn’t want to presume. Besides, what if you were a different Rey? You’d have thought me insane,”

“Maybe just strange,” she teased. “You know, you aren’t half bad when you aren’t raging around here and yelling at everyone.”

“I do not do that.” 

“Yes, you do. Not to mention the sheer number of people you’ve fired,” she pointed out, a brow lifted, almost daring him to deny it.

“Well, they’ve all deserved it.”

“It’s truly a wonder that anyone new ever comes to work here. You’d give a person with less backbone a hysterical attack. I know you know what people call this place.”

“Of course I know,” he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “That name was coined when things were still under the charge of Doctor Snoke, and only got worse when he died.”

Rey scoffed, “I don’t see how-”

“Don’t play me for a fool, Rey it doesn’t suit you. Everyone on this campus knows _exactly_ what happened. I see the way everyone looks at me, the way people skitter around me. I would have to be blind to not notice. It’s all that man’s fault.” Kylo laughed bitterly, and Rey frowned at him. “Everything, who I am, it’s all his fault.”

“You can’t blame other people for the way you are,” Rey said, taking a step away from him. She had seen him angry before, yes, but what was simmering just below the surface here was something else.

“No, you aren’t listening. You think I - no.” He took a deep breath in through his nose and Rey watched his fists clench at his sides. “When I came here, full of talent and promise and so many other platitudes the Doctor was so fond of foisting upon me, I was just out of school. I had worked with him while I was studying; he taught me most of what I know, and I’m grateful for that.” He looked at her and Rey nodded stiffly. He continued. “It took me a year and a half to figure out what was going on. He was stealing my work. Giving credit to a person who didn’t exist, so he could collect double the reward. Then he published a paper I had written. I had given it to him to look over, to check for inaccuracies in my research.” He paused, taking a deep breath and looked right at her, his gaze so intense Rey almost felt the need to look away. “It made the front page of The Astronomical Journal.”

Rey sucked in a sharp breath, “Binary Stars, by Kylo Ren,” she whispered, her gaze wide in shock as she watched him nod.

“I confronted him immediately, and he told me there was nothing I could do, but he was wrong. I wrote a letter to Benjamin Gould, and he wrote me one back, and I met him - as Kylo Ren. It all unfolded from there. I took that name as my own, and took my work and life back with it. Snoke was furious. He fired half of the people working here and broke more starplates in one afternoon than Hux ever will.” Kylo made a disgusted noise in his throat and began pacing. “It was such a waste. Of resources, of money, of already calculated data. Then he decided he could use it to his advantage; he was, afterall, coauthor on every paper Kylo Ren had ever written.”

“That’s not fair,” Rey hissed, finding herself angry on his behalf. She couldn’t imagine how that must have felt, to have all of her work stolen. Of course she had had men trying to take credit for things she had accomplished her whole career, but she was always quick to stand up for herself - but to not know, and then find out that way. She shuddered and watched him pace.

“Four months later,” he said, his voice barely a whisper, and she found herself leaning towards him to better hear, “he was here, up at the telescope, doing late night charting. I was here too, as well as Mr. Wexley, taking notes. I read the information back wrong, and he turned around to chastise me for it.” 

Rey opened her mouth to say something, anything, to stop him from saying what she knew would come next. 

“He fell.” The words came quickly, delivered with the same sort of ease one might mention the weather. “I don’t - it was over in a moment. He was dead before I even reached him. It’s weird, isn’t it,” he almost mused, “how if you can fall just right, even from such a short height-” Rey found herself staring wide-eyed at him when he abruptly cut himself off.

“That’s terrible,” Rey finally managed, watching Kylo as he pulled a starplate and stared at it.

“No, what’s terrible is that for a moment, I thought that it was a shame it was over so quickly. I wanted it to have been slow, and I wanted to watch, for him to know I was near and not helping him.” He put the plate back. “I’m a monster,” he said simply and then looked up at her. “I’m so sorry, I should go.”

“Professor, wait -” she called, taking a step after him, but it was too late, he was gone. Rey slumped back against the wall, feeling like her heart was between her ears with how she could suddenly practically hear it beating within her. 

* * *

For three weeks after their exchange, Kylo avoided her. He wouldn’t even look at her whenever he stepped into the workroom to yell at everyone (Hux) to get back to their tasks. Rey had spent three days worried she was somehow going to be fired for what she now knew, but once the fear of that wore off, she found herself getting worked up over being ignored. While it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, as the man truly liked his solitude, Rey used to be able to at least go ask him questions. Now he stayed holed up in his office and ignored her insistent knocking on the door.

Three weeks and everyone else _knew_ something was up. The tension in their observatory was poised to boil over at any moment, and Rey feared the fallout when it did. Everyone worked in silence now, terrified of setting off Kylo, with only quiet whispers filtering across the room when someone needed something. 

When the bell chimed at five, everyone was out of their seats and bolting for the door, leaving star plates scattered across the table tops. Rey watched them all go with a sigh, then stood up and began straightening everything up herself. For a trio of people who feared the mere footsteps of the man in charge, they sure were willing to risk his ire over something easily avoidable.

She heard the door to his office open and tensed, waiting for him to come through the door and find her still there. But nothing happened, his footsteps passing by outside of the room without him entering, so Rey continued what she was doing until she was satisfied with the order of their workroom. Picking up her notebook, she headed to the ladder at the telescope, quickly ascending and adjusting the instrument minutely before looking through the eyepiece, taking in the stars that made an appearance in the early twilight hours.

 _This_ was where she longed to be. Categorizing star plates was nice enough; it was honest work, and she loved doing it, was proud to help further mankind’s knowledge of the stars. But charting the stars, actually observing them, she loved that more. 

“Miss Niima, it is after hours.” 

“I’m very well aware of that fact, Professor Ren.”

“It’s dangerous to do that unsupervised, as I know you’re very well aware now. You certainly shouldn’t trust me.” 

“Yet I find that I do,” she said, pulling away to look down at him, and felt a small frisson of pleasure run through her as she watched his expression morph into one of surprise. “But I’ll come down.”

He hovered at the base of the ladder, and Rey descended hastily until she had to look up at him again. “Better?” she asked with a smile.

“Go home, Miss. Niima,” he dismissed her, turning away.

“No, I’d actually like to speak with you about something.”

“And what would that be?”

“Well, it’s the classification system.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand. Your work is exemplary, I don’t see how you could have a question.”

“Oh, you misunderstand, I think the system could be improved upon.”

He raised a brow. “And how do you propose to do that?”

“Well, I’m not exactly sure yet.” She frowned, teeth nibbling at her bottom lip. “I just think it feels like it’s missing something. Hux and Phasma agree.”

“You have no true proposal then.”

“No. But,” she paused, drawing herself up to her full height, “I’m going to work on it. I just thought I would inform you.”

He observed her for a moment, before glancing up at the telescope and smiling about something. “I look forward to hearing more about it. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to be going. You should see yourself home as well.”

“Of course.” She nodded, and made her way to the closet to grab her purse and jacket. 

“Actually,” Kylo cleared his throat and Rey turned to nervously look at him, “I would also like to apologize, for the incident the other week.”

“You already did, but I’m sorry too, for letting you leave. You were clearly distressed and in need of a friend. Besides, I had something to say before you ran away.”

“Rey, please.” He spoke quietly and avoided looking at her, shoulders hunched low. “I don’t want your pity.”

“Who said anything about pity?” she asked him lightly. “I just want, no, I _need_ you to know that you aren’t a monster. I don’t think you’re a monster. What happened wasn’t your fault, and your feelings towards him are justified. He tried to take everything from you.” Rey found the words came out sounding angry, and she had to reign herself in and take a breath. This wasn’t the first time she’d found herself feeling this way over what had happened to him. She looked up at him, taking another deep breath in through her nose before releasing it slowly. “You aren’t a monster,” she repeated, watching him carefully as he looked everywhere but at her.

“Thank you,” he said at last, body sagging slightly with what might have been relief, and she gave him a closed lip smile. Kylo cleared his throat. “Do you have plans tonight, Miss. Niima?”

Rey laughed lightly. “Just the usual, a paper to read, theories to work on, scrounge up something reasonable to eat before I forget to. What about you?”

“My mother is hosting a small dinner tonight.”

“Well, please don’t let me keep you—” Rey said, taking a step towards the door to the lab and putting one arm into her coat.

“If you don’t mind,” Kylo spoke quickly, arm just barely shifting to reach towards her, “I was wondering, perhaps, if you would like to join me. I’m sure she would love to see you again, and I would like to prove the sincerity of my apology.”

Rey eyed him warily, shrugging her other arm into her coat before quickly buttoning it. “Should I refer to you as Professor Ren, or Mr. Organa-Solo at dinner?” she asked, decided.

He started, seeming surprised at her acceptance of the invitation, “B-Ben, just Ben is fine, for tonight,” he stammered, running his hands over the front of his coat, suddenly finding interest in his shoes. If he had been looking, he would have seen her blush.


	4. Chapter 4

Leia’s home was surprisingly close by, and Ben, _just Ben_ , insisted they could they could walk since the evening was nice enough.

“I feel a little underdressed,” Rey fussed, taking in Ben’s neat attire and frowning down at her dark skirts—perfectly suitable for working but not what she would wear to a party.

“You look perfect to me,” he told her simply, and Rey felt another blush bloom across her cheeks. Honestly, it was getting ridiculous now. “Besides,” he continued, “Mother won't mind. She knows I’m coming straight from work; she won’t expect you to be in a party dress.”

“Ben, I’m already imposing.”

“I’ve invited you,” he pointed out gently.

“But the hassle your mother—” Rey continued to protest, feeling foolish for accepting the invitation but she heard Ben huff in exasperation.

“Please, my mother always plans for more people than those who come. There will be plenty of food and drink.”

“If you’re sure,” Rey submitted, running her palms over her hair and tucking a stray wisp behind her ear.

“I am. Now come on, we only want to be fashionably late,” he teased, offering his arm. After a moment of hesitation, Rey took it.

He stopped them in front of a lovely brownstone with flowers in window boxes framed by blue shutters. He led her up the stairs and opened the door, light and music spilling out onto the street to greet them.

“Ben!” Leia cried, pulling herself away from a small group she was conversing with, “And you brought Rey, how wonderful.”

“Thank you for having me. Ben insisted I wouldn’t be an imposition.”

“The more the merrier, my dear,” Leia declared, and Rey pointedly ignored the smug grin Ben sent her way as Leia gave her son a hug. “Please, make yourselves at home. Dinner will be served momentarily. Ben, take Rey through to the parlor and get yourselves something to drink. I want everyone to have a wonderful evening. And Ben,” Leia added, hushed, “keep Rey away from Lando please, he’s up to his usual antics.”

“Of course,” Ben assured her, before spinning Rey towards the parlor.

“Who is Lando?” Rey asked quietly, leaning into Ben.

“An old family friend,” Ben said after a moment, a smile dancing at the corners of his mouth, “and a massive flirt to everyone he encounters.”

“Master Ben, how good to see you again,” the man at the bar greeted, and Rey took him in, eyes dancing in delight as he fussed over her companion. His name was Cecil, she quickly learned, and he had strong opinions on which wines to drink before dinner. He was tall and lean and seemed a bit nervous in general, but he was delightfully friendly, and tried to tell Rey a story about Ben when he was younger after they had their drinks. Unfortunately, Ben quickly intercepted and steered them away.

“Are you worried he might have told me something embarrassing?” Rey asked, taking a sip of wine.

“Definitely,” Ben grumbled, making Rey laugh. “That man has a veritable treasure trove of embarrassing stories about me, I’m sure.”

“Oh, well maybe we should go back,” Rey turned, raising the glass of wine to her lips to drink as she did so. Ben was quick to place a hand on her back, steering her around as she laughed into her drink.

He ushered them back through the main hall, then with a quick glance around turned the knob and pushed the door open.“The library,” Ben beamed, sweeping an arm into the room in front of them. Dark mahogany shelves lined the walls, all filled to the brim with more books than Rey was sure she had ever read. It was, somehow, even more impressive as the one the housed on campus. A small fireplace sat across the room, surrounded by two large wingback chairs and a low chaise lounge, while the two windows in the room had small cushioned seats nestled into their nooks.

“Oh,” Rey sighed, stepping fully into the room, fingers lighting on the spines of books as she walked past, pausing now and then to pull one out to look at it before gently returning it. “ _Oliver Cromwell_?” she asked, looking at the small book lying abandoned on the nearest window seat.

“My mother's latest read, I would wager to guess,” Ben said, still hovering near the door, and Rey nodded, going back to admiring the collection. 

“You can come in,” Rey said with a small laugh over her shoulder.

“We are without a chaperone,” Ben muttered shifting to hold his hands stiffly behind his back.

“We walked the whole way here without one and we work together without one on occasion. Besides, we are friends, are we not? Friends are certainly allowed to go about their business without the need of some uppity woman looking over their shoulder at all times.”

“Friends, of course,” Ben said quietly, stepping fully into the room and earning a smile from Rey for it. 

“Besides, aren’t you supposed to be keeping me from this Lando fellow? Seems like the most unoccupied room in the house is the best place to do it.”

Ben laughed lightly at this and moved to the wall opposite from Rey. He knew most of his mother's collection by heart, but still managed to spot a new addition or two every time he came to visit. With a small smile he pulled the first volume of _‘Bulfinch’s Mythology’_. 

“Look what I found.” He spoke gently into the room and Rey turned, making her way to him where he handed the book over.

“Yours is in much better condition than mine,” Rey said with a laugh, taking in the cover bearing the title ‘ _The Age of Fable’_ “I read it until it fell apart in places.”

“That somehow does not surprise me,” he told her with a smirk, letting the book fall open between them. They leaned over it, foreheads nearly touching as they browsed it together, taking turns to dramatically read favorite passages to one another. They only reluctantly left when the ringing of a bell sounded the call to dinner.

At the long dining room table, Rey found herself happily seated between Ben and Ms. Holdo with a brief exchanged of “call me Amilyn, _please_ ,” before the appetizers were presented. 

“So, Miss Niima,” an older gentleman began from down the table when the conversation lulled as soups were being placed in front of everyone, “I hear you’re one of those _computers_ they have over at Harvard now.”

“I do analyze data, yes.”

“Right, right, can’t have you ladies doing anything too difficult,” the man sneered. Rey could practically feel the tension rising in Ben as Amilyn sniffed, her spoon clattering against the bowl as she dropped it.

“To be sure,” Rey said, smoothing her hands over the napkin in her lap and smiling, “we wouldn’t want to upset your clear preconceptions that this is easy _women’s work._ I for one cannot imagine making you have to stoop so low as to have to have to accurately catalog the stars based on their brightness, theorized temperature and potential weight. After all, all it takes are degrees in physics and mathematics, graduate-level study in astronomy, three years training in spectroscopy. Nothing much. Not to mention needing to have a full understanding of spectral lines, which we extract based on the chemical composition of the star we’re looking at before we then determine the blackbody radiation, which of course you need to know well if you have any hope at all of discovering the true classification of a star. It’s quite a simple equation, and I’d be more than happy to show you if you stopped by. That way you can truly see how _easy_ it is to do what I do. What is it you do again, sir?”

“I-I am an auctioneer.”

“Ah, I see, a truly difficult job, I fear I just couldn’t do it. Such a societal advancement it provides, too. Truly, you’re doing work that a woman like me could never comprehend, although, I do believe we both deal in numbers all day, do we not?” Rey smiled sweetly at him, dipping her spoon into her soup amid the tense silence the table had fallen into. Next to her, Rey heard Ben choke on his soup in an effort not to laugh.

Leia hardly let the silence lapse for long, “Mr. Mundi, please, tell us more about auctioneering, it sounds _fascinating,”_ she said, smiling wide at the man. 

“Oh, yes,” Amylin chimed, eyes dancing in delight when she caught Rey’s gaze. “I too would love to hear more about this. I’ve never been to an auction, what is it like?”

The tension broke at the table as Mr. Mundi tried to stutter through a lackluster description of his job before Lando took pity on him and began recounting a tale from his most recent gambling victory. Rey was relaxed and warm by her fourth glass of wine when the main course was served. She looked around the table, so many strangers, but delightful company, and then she glanced at Ben, who was listening intently to the story Mon Mothma was telling about the latest meeting of the American Woman Suffrage Association and felt a different sort of warmth bloom in her chest.

* * *

“Thank you for inviting me, I had a lovely time,” Rey grinned up at Ben as they walked down the street together, wrapping her jacket tighter around her and flicking up the collar to fend off the light drizzle that was just starting to fall. “For the most part.”

“I did too. I didn’t even know Mr. Mundi could turn that shade of purple.” Rey grunted at the mention of the man and Ben laughed. “He’s an idiot, you could talk circles around him without even trying, Rey. Men like him, and all of the men who sneer the word ‘computer’, aren’t even worth to speak to any of you, let alone try to challenge your intellect.”

Rey hummed, “I’m sure it also helps that you can hire women at a lower cost, right? How many of us can you hire for the price of one man? How many women get hired to the other observatory sections getting paid less than what I do, or what Phasma does?”

“I try to pay you all a fair wage, Rey, but -”

“I’m not saying you don’t, Ben. I know I’m lucky to have you, and I know my worth, but how many other women? I’ve heard them talking, the other computers, heard your fellow associates laughing about it as they’ve passed through the stacks, how _easy_ it is to hire women and pay them less, because what else would they be doing? ‘Nothing’ those men say. Sitting at home and doing mending or some other paltry task. They should be so thankful to have a paying job, no matter how paltry that sum is. I think you will find, Ben, that most men have a very limited grasp of how hard working and intelligent women can be. 

“Those women are doing important work, and what are their bosses doing? Taking the credit. Will history even remember them, or know their names? How many of them will be lost to the annals of time while their insights continue to be known?” She sighed, pausing in her tirade to gather her thoughts because she knew she was starting to ramble. “Sorry,” she said softly. “Usually only my mother lets me go on this long about this,” she confessed and Ben grinned.

“I could help you,” Ben offered, hands shoved deep in his pockets as he walked, collar also up against his neck even as his shoulders slumped forward. “I mean it,” he continued at Rey’s quiet scoff of disbelief. “We could do it, making sure they’re known. I know what it’s like to have work stolen out from under you,” he whispered.

Rey found herself with more questions for the man beside her and she opened her mouth to ask, but he tensed and shook his head. She quickly opted to switch tactics; those questions could wait, “I don’t really know what could be done though, Ben. Not all of them are able to publish in scientific journals, not all of them even have the education to do so, despite having phenomenal aptitude.”

“Who said it had to be a scientific journal?” he asked as the rain started to fall harder, causing Rey let let out a small noise of surprise, but she didn’t say anything else. They walked faster, not far from the observatory campus and their respective apartments now, but far enough that they would both be soaked before arriving home. 

Rey could count on one hand the number of times she had been stunned into silence, and two of them now were because of the man almost jogging next to her. People could say what they wanted about Kylo Ren; he wasn’t an easy man to build a camaraderie with, that much was true. He always wanted and strove for the best from himself and his employees, which he got nearly every time. Rey knew though, that under that hard shell of intensity and demanding perfection, was a good man. So people could talk, but they were all wrong.

“I’m sorry I didn’t think to bring an umbrella with us tonight,” Ben said abruptly, pulling Rey from her musings, and she looked up to find them stopped under the awning of her building.

“Oh! We’re home. That’s all right, the evening started out nice enough to be misleading,” Rey assured him with a smile. “Thank you for walking me to my building, you didn’t need to go out of your way.”

“It was nothing, thank you for coming along tonight. I know my mother enjoys seeing you.”

“Of course, I’m sure she sometimes enjoys seeing you too.” Ben laughed at this and Rey smiled at both the sound and how nearly pathetic he was starting to look with his rain drenched hair hanging limply around his face. “Perhaps next time, I could return the favor? Although, it will not be several blocks away.”

“Perhaps,” Ben agreed. “Sleep well, Rey. I’ll see you at work on Monday.” He gave her a small wave that she quickly returned before he stepped out into the rain and backtracked towards his own dwelling.

When he was finally gone from sight, Rey pulled open the door and took the stairs two at a time up to her room, shucking off her drenched clothes and hanging them over the drying rack stationed in her small kitchen. Once dry and warm once more, Rey was quick to climb into bed and drift to sleep.

_“Any new stories tonight, scavenger?” Ben asks, steps deliberately loud on the ground this time. Rey snorts at his dramatics and waves him down._

_It had rained the past two days, and the night skies were finally clear. Rey has brought blankets to spread on the still-wet ground, and she pats the space beside her. “I didn’t know picking up seashells made me a scavenger,” she says as he folds his long limbs to settle at her side._

_“My apologies, Lady Kenobi.”_

_“I accept you apology, Mr. Organa-Solo.”_

_Ben huffs and Rey giggles, making Ben laugh before he mutters, “I have the most pretentious sounding last name,” before they’re gone again._

_Rey laughs for a few moments more before she turns to smile at Ben. “I have a sad story, if you want to hear it.”_

_“I love melancholy stories,” Ben replies._

_Rey rolls her eyes, but starts to speak, arm drifting up to trace the constellation. “Lyra.” It’s a small thing, compared to its neighbors in the heavens. Made up of five bright stars that are easily found, not far off from Hercules. “It goes by other names in other places, but it’s known to us as the lyre of Orpheus.”_

_“Orpheus, the guy whose music could charm anything?”_

_“Yes! So, he married a nymph, and he loved her and played her music all the time so she could dance, until one day, she was seen dancing by some minor god who I honestly don’t care about.” Ben snorts at this, but Rey barrels on._

_“She ran from the god, and stepped on a viper. It bit her and she died, they say instantly, but honestly, that sounds so ridiculous. So Orpheus was so distraught he couldn’t play anything but sad music, and his music brought the deities to tears. Well, once they had enough of that they told him to go visit Hades and see if he couldn’t bring his bride back. And that’s what he did.”_

_“Hold on,” Ben interrupts “They could just go visit the underworld whenever they pleased?”_

_“What? No, that’s not—just let me finish. So he went to the underworld, and Hades was so moved by his music that he relented and said Orpheus could bring his wife back, as long as he did one small thing.”_

_“What was it?”_

_Rey can’t tell if Ben is genuinely interested or just humoring her, but she continues, “He couldn’t look back. All he had to do was not turn around until after he made it back out of the underworld.”_

_Ben groans. “He looked, didn’t he?”_

_“Yes. So his wife was trapped in the underworld forever and he just roamed the earth singing sad music until he died.”_

_“Why would he be so stupid?” Ben asks with another groan, his hands fisting into his hair in frustration. “Wasn’t he a god though? They don’t just die.”_

_“He wasn’t really, but you can die if people kill you.” Rey says brightly and Ben scoffs lightly at this, rolling his eyes._

_“What about his wife?”_

_Rey sits up and smirks down at Ben. “A romantic.” She pokes at his chest. “They were reunited in the underworld, what else did you think would happen?”_

Rey blinked slowly awake into the grey light of early dawn, and rolled from her bed with all of the grace of a newborn colt and staggered to the water pitcher perched on her vanity. She trembled as she poured a glass and quickly drank it, followed by another. It’s nothing, she told herself, looking into the mirror, catching sight of her wild eyes and sleep mussed hair. 

Dreams, or memories posing as dreams mean nothing. She thought back on the night before, of Ben laughing in the rain, and knew it wasn’t nothing. With single minded determination she threw herself into her day. Cleaning her small living space and ignoring the spark of light that was beginning to bloom in her chest whenever she thought of Ben.


	5. Chapter 5

On Monday Rey was settled at her station, magnifying glass in one hand to better observe a cross section of stars and pencil poised in the other ready for note taking, while Phasma was seated across from her, quietly telling her about her date on Friday evening with her current beau and how they made out in the back of the theatre for two minutes without getting caught. Rey thought she laughed at the appropriate times and commented when needed, but she was also really trying to focus on the task at hand.

It was just past nine in the morning when the front door to the labs slammed shut with such force that it rattled the star plates perched in the stacks waiting to be catalogued. Phasma jerked and Rey’s pencil scratched a line across her notebook. The two women stared up at each other as Finn and Hux came running in from the stack filing room.

“What was that?” Finn asked, looking between them before they all turn to watch Kylo stalk into the room. “Good morning, Professor Ren,” Finn greeted him, and Hux hissed in a breath at the glare Kylo turned on them all.

“If I hear anything in this office today, that isn’t related to stars, or calculating their mass, or filing the plates _properly_ , you’re all fired. Do you understand?” he seethed, hands clenched at his sides.

Rey and Phasma gaped at him before nodding quickly, ducking their heads to get back to work, while Hux said a quiet “Yes sir,” and tugged Finn back out of the room to finish filing plates.

“Do you have an eraser?” Rey whispered to Phasma, as Kylo passed by.

“Miss, Niima, what did I _just_ say?” Kylo asked, halting in his trek to his office.

“I heard what you said, my need of an eraser doesn’t change that fact.”

“Perhaps if you were entering your data correctly,”

“Perhaps, _Professor_ , if you didn’t storm in here slamming things around, I wouldn’t have to erase unnecessary things,” she countered, taking the eraser that Phasma quickly handed over and getting to work on the errant line.

“My office, now, Miss Niima,” Kylo said and Rey looked up to find him watching her. He merely lifted a brow when she continued erasing before sighing and standing to follow him.

“I’m not apologizing for asking for an eraser,” Rey told him firmly, crossing her arms over her chest as he shut the door behind her.

“I don’t care about the eraser, Rey.”

“Well, if you try to fire me for asking-”

“I’m not going to fire you, just, please, I need a moment,” he cut her off, his voice quiet as he pushed his hands roughly through his hair. “I met with the board this morning,” he finally said after a moment.

“Oh, did they threaten to fire _you_?” she asked, surprised.

“No, of course not, they’d be idiots - that is not the point. I brought up what we spoke about Friday night.”

“About publishing?”

“No, the pay, and you know what they had the nerve to do?”

“Laugh,” Rey supplied with a sigh, sinking into one of the chairs in front of his desk.

“Yes! Laugh. At me, as though I was presenting them with the most preposterous idea. That the university doesn’t have that kind of money, and where would they find the funds, and I’m sorry,” he sighed, seeming to deflate. 

“It’s okay, Ben - sorry, Professor Ren. Really. If I might be so bold, I think you may not have gone about it the right way. Not that there was anything _wrong_ with your way, and I’m sure Amylin or your mother would have a better handle on something like this, but you shouldn’t go it alone.”

“I still could, I can rework the budget -”

“Ben, please. Look at me,” she urged, waiting until he did. “I’m okay, I make enough to support myself, all of us do really, and I never expected you to march right to the board and try and change things immediately. You really shouldn’t have let me go on for so long airing my grievances.” She rubbed her temples and sighed again. “Change like this takes time, and you’re going to need help if you really want to do it. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it certainly wasn’t built by one man, so maybe just relax about this. At least for right now. We have other work to worry about.”

“You’re right. I apologize.”

“Yes, well, you owe everyone else an apology too,” she said, standing and brushing out her skirts.

* * *

“I need your opinion on this,” Rey said, sidling into his office on a Thursday in early spring, two star plates and her notebook tucked under her arm. “If you aren’t busy,” she amended, pulling up short at finding him buried behind stacks of paper on his desk.

“I’m not,” he sighed, standing.

“The towers of papers and folders would suggest otherwise,” Rey teased, but she pressed the door shut behind her with the heel of her shoe and held out the star plates for him to take.

“I want to ask what I’m looking at, but I _know_ what I’m looking at, so what specifically should I be looking at?” he asked, moving to a small side table where a star plate observer sat, placing one of the plates in, and pulling up a chair.

“I’ve circled the ones to look at, here.” She placed her notebook next to him, letting it fall open to the right pages. “Hux and Phasma have been arguing about this for months, but I think I might have found a way to combine both of their ideas. It’s more comprehensive than what we’re doing now, but not quite as complicated as Phasma was trying to make it.” She settled the other plate down gently and peered over Kylo’s shoulder. “This is a good plate, it has almost every star. See this one?” She pointed carefully. “We’re currently classifying it as an ‘A’, but look at it compared to the several other ‘A’ stars on the plate—it’s so much brighter! Here.” She grinned as she lifted the other plate up for examination. This one was vastly different from the one they were viewing, which was covered in a multitude of dark spots scattered across the pale glass. This one had a series of thick lines stretched across it. “This is the cross section from this sector here,” she informed him, pointing to the faint square hatched around the upper left corner of the first star plate. “Look at star B2547, and then compare it to star B2559.”

“A vast difference,” Kylo said, after a few moments of comparing everything. “What do you suggest?”

“Reclassification.”

“Rey, that would take—”

“Years, probably, but we could start with this, take the next cycle of plates to figure it all out, then worry about the old plates later, or whenever you hire on new people. They can sort that, while the rest of us stick to classifying new stars.”

“And Hux and Phasma are aware of this?”

“Yes! They were the ones who brought it up, or rather fought about it mostly, and then, remember, I told you there was something I wanted to work on? This was it!”

“Rey.”

“You don’t like it.” She frowned, shoulder slumping as she reached for her notebook.

“I didn’t say that,” he grunted, reaching for her wrist to pluck her notebook from her hands. “May I?” he asked softly.

“Yes, of course. I’ll give you some time to look. It’s actually after hours, and I have dinner plans with Finn, so if you have questions, well, you know where I’ll be in the morning.” 

He looked up sharply at her mention of dinner plans, and Rey smiled at him, “Uh, enjoy dinner, and I’ll let you know if I have questions in the morning. I am looking forward to digging into all of this.”

“Have a good evening, Professor Ren.” And she was out the door before he could wish her well.

“I have questions,” Kylo Ren stated from just inside the entrance of the astronomy building, making Rey jump, and he quickly apologized. “I’ve been up all night reading everything and thinking about it,” he rushed out, helping her out of her light jacket, “Have you had breakfast yet?”

“What?” Rey asked, thrown by his question.

“Have you eaten breakfast? It’s very early.”

“I, uh, I couldn’t sleep, and I thought I could be of more use here than in my bed staring at my ceiling. I had coffee.”

“Coffee isn’t breakfast.”

“I’ve seen you consume nothing _but_ coffee during the day.”

“It's a truly terrible example to set. Now, shall we discuss this over breakfast?” Kylo asked, holding her notebook up between two fingers.

“That would be wonderful, where—?”

“This way.” He spun and retreated to his office, smiling at Rey’s small gasp of surprise. “My mother was just here, and she always insists on bringing more than necessary when she comes for breakfast.”

“It’s nice.” Rey smiled, stepping into his office and picking up an orange, “How much she cares, I mean. Now, what are your questions?”

“How was your date?”

“My what? Oh, no, it wasn’t, no. Sorry, I just had dinner with Finn, to meet his soon-to-be-fiancé.” She avoided looking at him, instead jamming a thumb into the flesh of the orange to begin peeling it. “Were you jealous?” she asked with a small grin, eyes finding his again and he blushed.

Kylo blinked owlishly at Rey, “I, ah, no - I have misinterpreted the situation,” he confessed before clearing his throat and squaring his shoulders, turning to look down at the starplates before him, “Regarding the classification differences between O and B, you made a note that you’re still trying to figure out where the cut off lies? Since they’re both blue-white stars.”

“Right,” she said, shuffling closer to peer over his shoulder at the displayed starplate, propped up in a frame with light pencil markings drawn on the glass. Ben lightly tapped against the top image, a rectangular block of vertical lines varying in a scale of shades from nearly white to deepest black, and the one below it looked markedly similar. “To the untrained eye, they look nearly identical, but here,” and she reached over and pointed, “you see that? The slightest difference and I think that’s -”

“What about over here though?” Ben asked, pencil scratching a quick ‘X’ further along the plate. “The further you go, the more they’re different, but I think the marker you indicated, to this one -” He turned to look up at her and Rey jolted slightly in surprise at suddenly having his intense focus back on her again. “We’re going to need more data.” His voice pitched low when she finally turned to look at him, shuffling slightly to the side to create more space between them. 

Her lips curled up into a smile. “We have nothing _but_ data here,” she laughed. “I’ll be right back, there’s a few more interesting plates in the stacks that I can go pull.” She started to turn to do just that.

“Rey.” His hand reached out and grasped her wrist and she allowed herself to be pulled back towards him. “You - you do good work,” he blurted, and Rey was surprised to find his hand trembling where it still rested lightly against her wrist.

“I know,” she chirped, “but are you all right? You’re shaking, Ben.”

His grip tightened momentarily, before releasing her. “I’m fine, I promise. I just never really thought I’d be on this end of an important discovery.”

“You already provided breakfast, further flattery attempts are not required.”

“I’m not-” he started to defend, but when he looked up Rey’s skirts were already swishing around the corner and out of sight.


	6. Chapter 6

“I cannot believe Professor Ren cleared the project,” Hux said after a minute, hands behind his back as he stared at the starplates that were scattered over the tabletop in the center of the room.

“Why?” Phasma snorted, sinking into a chair before kicking out her skirts and crossing her ankles revealing what Rey recognized as a new pair of boots. “Armitage.” She snapped her fingers and he jumped, eyes shifting quickly to her face. “I asked you a question,” she drawled, and Rey had to turn around to stifle a laugh at the blush steadily creeping up the redhead’s neck and face.

“When has Mr. Ren ever agreed with any idea he’s been presented with?”

“Hux, the only ideas you’ve given him are for longer lunch hours and bigger cushions for your seat,” Finn called from across the room, where he was busy pulling more plates from the stacks that lined the wall where they waited to be classified.

“That is not the point,” he blustered, scowling at the room at large before gesturing wildly at the table. “This - how do we even know what you presented him was a solid theory to work off of?”

“Are you seriously questioning me? After I pulled data from both you and Phasma, spoke to you both about it, and combined it to be more cohesive and less redundant? If the idea wasn’t worth pursuing it would have been shot down, and everyone in this room knows it. You wrote half of the paper I gave to him! What’s this really about?”

“Stargirl is right, while you’re usually full of snark, you aren’t typically this high-strung about things,” Phasma agreed, resting an arm down on the table while looking between Rey and Hux.

“I’m just under a lot of pressure to do well here.”

“We all are, Hux,” Finn grumbled as he strode over to the table with a few more plates for analysis.

“Well, none of you have had the extreme displeasure of meeting my father, so I can assure you that it is not the same.”

“If this is you fishing to have your name first on the published paper, you can forget about it, we agreed, ladies first, then alphabetical following. Besides, Rey has been the one doing the most leg work on this, and she’s doing night time star observation now, which you _know_ is a big deal, Hux,” Phasma said, taking two plates from Finn and propping them up in frames with practiced ease and shifting in her chair to be closer for better observation.

Hux snorted. “As though we don’t know what that’s all about, we’ve all seen her disappearing into his office for long amounts of time, she's always here early -”

“And she is still standing across the table from you, Armitage,” Rey growled, crossing her arms and cursing the stifling summer heat that lingered in the observatory, despite the incoming threat of a storm. She knew she was sweating, and her face was already a warm pink; the temperature wasn’t helping anyone’s disposition today. “If you are trying to insinuate that anything untoward is happening between Professor Ren and myself I would rather have you say it plainly so I can tell you in no uncertain terms that whatever fantasy you’ve fabricated is exactly that. Fantasy. Professor Ren and I have a professional relationship, and I’ve been in his office discussing the finer terms of all of this!” She gestured widely at the table. “Now if you will excuse me, I think I need some air, and some time away from you,” she said stiffly, brushing her hands primly over her skirts before turning and stalking from the room. 

“Rey, wait, I’m coming with you!” Finn called, as she reached the hall. She paused a minute to wait for him to catch up. They pushed through the front doors together and settled off to the side of the steps, in case anyone stopped by, but the streets were quiet, everyone holed up indoors to work.

“I can’t stand him most days. I still wish Professor Ren would have fired him last month, when he found out Hux misfiled all of those plates,” Finn said after a few moments of quiet, watching Rey try to restyle her hair so it wasn’t resting on her neck.

“His father has a lot of money, he makes a hefty donation every year, and he’s on the board; you know all this.”

“Must be nice, having all that money to throw around like that, to be able to get your useless son a job.”

Rey snorted into her shoulder. “He’s not that useless, he just tends to be better at theory rather than practical. His initial system that he had me look at was one of the most convoluted things I’ve ever seen.”

“Seems like the type to think himself into a corner, rather than out of one,” Finn mused. “It’s not fair, what he was saying in there, insinuating you’re only being allowed to do night time charting because of some illicit affair. Sounds like he’s just insecure about the fact that he knows his own job is bought for him.” He chuckled softly. “And besides, can you even imagine? You, with him? The big bad of Starkiller Base. You’ll disappear next if that’s the case,” Finn joked.

“Yeah, ha, can you imagine?” Rey asked weakly, staring across the street at the small campus park there, and once more stamping down on her building feelings for the professor. “That would be something.”

“Although,” Finn started, turning to look at her, leaning into her space a little. “If there was anyone that could crack that hard shell he’s got around himself, it would be you, wouldn’t it?”

“What are you insinuating, Finn?” Rey asked, turning to glare at him.

“He’s been nicer, these past few weeks, months,” he started slowly. “Not enough to really make a difference, but less likely to snap because there was a smudge on the telescope body, or the ladder wasn’t put back where it should be. Then of course there’s the way he looks at you sometimes, when he thinks no one else is looking at him.”

“Finn, don’t be ridiculous. He looks at me like I’m a person, that’s _it._ ”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Rey.” Finn nudged her, his eyes dancing with mirth. “But I know that look on a man.”

Rey took a breath and opened her mouth with a retort ready, but a long shadow fell over them and she turned to look up. “Professor Ren,” she squeaked, as Finn scrambled to stand.

“It’s not that nice of a day outside,” he led, tilting his head back to look up at the cloudy sky while Finn held out a hand and helped Rey to her feet. “An explanation?”

“Hux,” they grumbled together and Kylo tutted, shaking his head.

“What has he done this time?” he inquired with a sigh.

Rey jolted slightly and turned panicked eyes to Finn who was staring down the steps at Kylo. “He’s jealous that Rey is doing night time charting, when he’s been here the longest,” Finn informed him quickly before giving Rey a long look.

“Don’t, Finn,” she whispered, hand clamping down on his forearm and squeezing.

“He also implied that Rey only got the promotion because of how much time she spends in your office, _alone._ ”

“I beg your pardon?” Kylo asked, his jaw clenched and gaze dark.

“I took care of it,” Rey spoke up quickly, glaring at Finn. “Honestly, it’s fine.”

“It is not fine,” he hissed, stalking up the stairs to the building. Rey threw herself bodily in front of him before he reached the doors and Finn made a surprised noise, reaching out and looking like he wanted to stop her.

“Professor, please.” She took a breath and stood at her full height. “Just please, calm down, we all know how volatile Hux can be.”

“Right! Right, remember last month, when Connix ran into him in the hall, and he went crying to Daddy about it and got her fired,” Finn chimed in, trying to help.

They watched with bated breath as Kylo took a sharp breath in through his nose before releasing it slowly. He shifted, pulling at the front of his coattail jacket, and nodded, gaze intense and hyper focused on Rey. “Are you all right?” he asked. Rey was startled by the almost tender tone he used, and she most certainly ignored Finn wagging his eyebrows at her from beside Kylo.

“Yes, of course. I can handle myself.”

“I know you can, but that doesn’t mean - Mr. Storm,” Kylo said, suddenly turning to look at Finn, “please inform Armitage to await me in my office.”

“Uh, of course, Professor, right away.” Finn shot Rey another look that she pointedly ignored and he scrambled through the door behind her.

“Rey, don’t look at me like that, please.”

“I just don’t want this to make things worse,” she confessed, “Hux is already so-”

“No, Rey, I’m going to fire him,” Kylo’s voice was low and his gaze dark as he stared down the long hallway through the open door.

“You’re going to- oh!”

“Yes, but you’re sure you’re all right?” his eyes met hers and he took a half step towards her.

Rey smiled softly, “Other than being unbearably hot, I’m fine, I promise. I really should get back to work.”

“Rey-” he began, only to be cut off by two of Rey’s fingers gently pressing against his mouth. She smiled up at him as his eyes grew wide in shock before he took a step away from her, her hand falling limply between them.

“I’m all right, Ben,” she assured him once more, “I honestly left so I wouldn’t do something stupid, like hit him.”

The corners of Ben’s mouth lifted into a small smile as he regarded her. “It would have been well deserved, at any rate,” he told her after a beat, his smile growing with her own.

“Well, I still haven’t ruled it out,” she stated primly.

“Back to work, Miss Niima,” he said, mirth still dancing in his eyes. “I’d hate to fire two people today.”

She turned and walked through the open door, looking back over her shoulder. “For the lack of productivity, or the violence?” she asked, laughing when he huffed in amusement as he pulled the door shut behind them, Rey breaking off to her work station, while Professor Ren continued on to his office.

Two hours later Professor Ren was still holed up in his office with Hux, while Phasma had retreated to the stacks until the situation sorted itself out. Rey wanted nothing more than to get home and take the pins out of her hair before shedding her clothes to lay naked across her bed. Her dress clung to her from sweat, and it had been that way since early morning. Even the two large windows on the far wall thrown the whole way open did nothing to lessen the stifling heat of summer.

Only one hour left to go.

“I’m going to the lake after this,” Finn sighed from where he was leaning heavily across the table, arms folded across the surface and chin propped up on the backs of his hands, “I feel as though I can’t even think.”

“Lucky,” Rey grumbled, trying to tame her wilting hair enough so it was off the back of her neck.

“What kind of plans do you have for the weekend?” Finn asked, careful to be quiet. Professor Ren was still holed up in his office with Hux.

Rey groaned and mimicked Finn’s pose. “It’s my mother’s birthday this weekend, so I’ll be travelling out there for the party she’s throwing herself.”

“Sounds fun!” Finn enthused, smiling across at her.

Rey nodded. “I certainly hope so,” she answered, firmly leaving out the part where Professor Ren would be there, along with his mother, for the whole weekend.

* * *

Standing next to her godmother by the front door, Rey already knew dinner was going to be nearly unbearable. The over the top dress Satine had selected for her was heavy, fuller than normal skirts of silk and lace, and the bodice to match, were doing Rey no favors in the heat. It was that sticky oppressive heat of late summer that couldn’t be avoided, even with every window and door thrown wide. The list of guests included a handful of long-time friends of the Kenobis as well as new neighbors Rey had never met, but thought were pleasant enough. And of course Leia and Ben Organa-Solo, who Satine had invited to stay for the entirety of the weekend. 

Rey fussed with the lace at her decolletage and Satine swatted gently at her hand.

“Honestly, darling, stop fussing, you look even better than I had imagined.”

“I’m not fussing, it itches,” Rey insisted, trying again to fluff the lace that framed the neckline of the dress. “Why is there so much lace?” she asked before being shushed as the first guests arrived.

Satine was beaming as she greeted her guests. The last time Rey had seen her godmother this happy was so long ago, before Obi Wan had passed, so she was determined to bear it with a smile.

Leia looked resplendent in a gorgeous summer gown, and Ben, for the first time since Rey had known him, was wearing a tophat. She had barely managed to smother her laugh when he had to bend slightly just to make it through the front door without displacing the hat. She definitely didn’t manage it when Leia gave him grief about it.

“Honestly Ben, you’re tall enough, I don’t see why you couldn’t wear a simple bowler.”

“You told me to dress nice,” he defended, lifting his hat from his head and handing it the man waiting to take their coats.

“There is a difference between nice and going to the opera.”

“It’s a birthday celebration.”

“Leia, you made it,” Satine cried, sweeping into the foyer and greeting her friend. “And Ben, so good to see you again. Rey’s told me all about your project up at the observatory; it sounds fascinating. I’d love to hear more over dinner”

“Well, if you really want to put your guests to sleep I’m more than happy to oblige, but I appreciate your enthusiasm,” he said, pressing a swift kiss against her knuckles as his gaze found Rey, standing just inside the dining room. “You have quite the remarkable daughter.”

“Oh, I know!” Satine enthused, beaming up at Ben while Rey shook her head at them both. “She’s my pride and joy, now if only-”

“I believe everyone is here now, Mother, if you would like to get things started?”

“Of course, dear heart.” Satine swept over to Rey, brushing a strand of hair back into place and leaned in close. “That was the least subtle interruption I’ve ever seen,” she teased and Rey smiled at her. “I promise I won’t mention how much I want grandchildren, if you promise not to tell anyone how old I am.”

“Everyone already knows how old you are,” Rey frowned, scrunching her nose, and Satine threw her head back and laughed.

“It’s my birthday, Rey, humor me.” 

“I will be more than happy to discuss wanting to be a grandmother on your behalf, Satine,” Leia piped up and Ben groaned, hissing ’mother’ at her. Rey found herself smiling; at least she wasn’t alone in this.

When the last dessert plate was cleared and the final guest had left, Rey finally felt like she could breathe again. The house already felt cooler without the excess press of bodies occupying the space.

“Let’s have some tea,” Satine said with a satisfied sigh as the door swung shut, ushering her weekend guests and Rey into the sitting room.


	7. Chapter 7

It was a clear night, perfect for stargazing, and Rey didn’t think twice about escaping from the too-hot house to make her way to her long-time favorite stargazing spot. There was a light breeze rustling the tall grasses as cicadas sang from the distant trees. The noise of them swelled before fading into silence only to build once more, all of them calling out in hopes of finding a mate. Rey paused to snap the stem of a buttercup off, twirling it in her fingers as she walked. Finally, she reached it—the place where the grass was shorter than waist high as the ground sloped away to meet the tree line. There was a small creek in the distance, just close enough for her to hear the soft sounds of the water, and the trees were far enough away that her view of the heavens was unobstructed.

She shrugged off the blankets draped over her shoulders and shook one out neatly, laying it out flat, before folding the other one to rest under her head. Shucking off her shoes, she sank down onto the blanket and sprawled out on her back, smiling wide at the stars above. It was perfect.

“Old habits die hard, it seems.” 

Rey jumped at the sound of his voice and turned her head to look at him, arms belatedly coming up to cross over her chest. She should have felt embarrassed to be caught wearing nothing but her thin nightdress, but with the heat of summer, she couldn’t find it in her to truly care. 

“It’s too hot to sleep,” she huffed. “Come sit.” She shifted, patting the empty space on the blanket next to her.

“That wouldn’t be proper, would it?”

“Don’t be such a prude, Ben, we’re both adults.” She smirked at his grunt before he walked around her to sit stiffly on the blanket. “Lay down, you’re going to hurt your neck like that,” she admonished, tugging at his elbow and putting him off balance enough that he toppled back next to her, his head close enough for his hair to tickle her ear.

“It’s better,” he whispered several minutes later, and Rey turned to take in his profile, “than my memories of this place. I don’t think I really appreciated it back then.” Rey merely hummed in agreement before turning back to look at the sky. She jolted slightly when his pinky finger brushed the side of her hand, but she shifted and allowed him to thread his fingers through hers. “I think I owe you a story this time. It’s only fair, after the ones you’ve gifted to me.”

“I’m surprised you remember,” she murmured, keeping her tone low to match his.

“I never forgot. You– they’re actually the reason I do what I do.”

“Don’t lie, it doesn’t suit you,” Rey snorted, turning to frown at him.

“I’m not.” He smiled, turning to catch her gaze in the dark. “After that summer, I went home and found every book I could about astronomy. I will admit, my young self was mostly full of self-righteous anger that some small girl knew more about something than I did, but it was fascinating. Not just the stories, but the math and the science and all of the unknowns. I wanted, no, I _needed_ to know everything I could, and when the knowledge ran out, I wanted to push the limits of what we knew to find more.”

Rey squeezed his hand and rolled onto her side to better face him. “All right, tell me a story,” she whispered, her free hand falling to the scant space between their bodies to trace the patterns in the thread.

“I’m sure you know it,” he faltered, suddenly sounding uncertain.

Rey hummed. “Maybe, but I’d still like to hear a story. Please?”

“Fine.” He cleared his throat and lifted his free hand. “It’s not a specific constellation, but Vega,” his hand drifted off to the side, “and Altair.”

He paused here, his hand falling to rest low on his stomach. “The summer triangle,” Rey supplied into the silence.

“Yes. I mean, no, I’m not bringing Deneb into this story,” he huffed and Rey laughed, pressing her mouth against her arm to muffle the noise. “It’s a story from China. Once upon a time,” he started, and ignored Rey’s small ‘ohh’ of delight to carry on, “in a small village on a hill lived two orphaned brothers. But the older brother’s wife disliked the younger one, and forced her husband to cast his brother out. He was given an old cow, a cow that in time would become loyal to him. The younger brother and his cow roamed the countryside looking for a new home, and finally they found it, in a small cave. He worked the land with his cow every day, without fail, and eventually he was successfully growing enough crops to keep them fed. He was able to build a small shelter for himself and the cow.

“Everyday the cowherd would work in his fields and he would talk to the cow, his only companion, asking him questions and commenting on the lovely colors of the clouds. One day though, the cow talked back, and told the cowherd they were all created by a fairy weaver girl, and she was the youngest daughter of the heavenly queen. So shocked was the cowherd that he didn’t believe his cow could be the one speaking and he wandered his fields looking for the voice.

“The cow took pity on his lonely cowherd and told him the following day that the fairies would all fly from the heavens to bathe in a nearby spring. That if he should take the weaver girl’s feather cloak she would not be able to return to the heavens with her sisters, and so that is what the cowherd did. He took her disguise and, when her sisters were gone he approached with her cloak, he proposed and she said yes. They lived happily in love together for several years; he worked his fields and she wove beautiful things and taught the nearby villagers how to make them too. They even had children together. Then one day, the old cow finally died, but before he did, he told the cowherd to keep his hide and it would protect him when he was in danger.

“They lived in peace for another year, before Weaver Girl told the cowherd that it was time for her to return home, that for every year that passed there with him was one day in the heavens and the clouds were finally starting to thin. While the cowherd could see that this was true, he tried to fight, but it was no use. Weaver Girl’s own father, The Jade Emperor was demanding she come home, and her mother would be sending a retinue of guards to escort her home. They both cried as she put her cloak back on and then she left.” Ben sighed with finality.

“Benjamin Organa-Solo! That is not the end of that story.” Rey growled, rolling just enough to pinch his side. “It’s not funny,” Rey pouted when Ben started laughing quietly. “Please finish the story?” she asked, rolling back onto her back.

“Only because you said please,” he responded, making Rey roll her eyes, but he picked up the story once more. “Distraught, the cowherd remembered the cow’s hide and quickly scooped up his children and threw it over them all to chase after his love. Immediately he felt lighter and was flying, up and up above the clouds. He was catching up to them and he kept calling for them to ‘wait’. He was almost there, nearly at the heavenly gates, when he came to a celestial river, miles wide and deep and full of tumultuous waves. There was no way for him to cross. Desperate, he cried for the cow to help him once more, but there was nothing more to be done. No mortal was able to cross the celestial river, to do so would mean death. The cowherd was heartbroken, but he kept trying to find a way to cross the river, determined to be with his love again, while across the shore she wept for the family she lost.

“It’s said that all of the fairies and gods who heard their cries felt pity for them, and eventually, the heavenly queen’s heart softened and allowed the family to remain in the heavens as stars. Then, on the seventh day of the seventh month, magpies fly into the heavens and create a bridge across the river. So for one day a year they can be together again.”

“That’s so sad, and beautiful,” Rey sniffled.

“You knew that story,” Ben groused, and Rey laughed, scooting closer to him.

“I might have, but no one’s ever told it to me,” she sighed, shifting so she was leaning up on her arm linked with his and able to look down at his face. “It’s different hearing it, compared to reading it. Thank you.”

“You’re beautiful,” Ben said suddenly and Rey could see his eyes grow wide in the light of the stars and moon. “I mean, you’re welcome,” he stammered quickly, body growing tense.

“And you, Ben Organa-Solo, are incredibly handsome,” Rey told him seriously, before dropping back down to lay beside him, closing her eyes to listen to him breathe.

“Rey,” he whispered, and she opened her eyes to see him shifting so that he was now on his side facing her. “This isn’t proper.”

Rey laughed again. “You worry too much,” she said, lifting her free hand to trace the line of his nose, sweeping across his cheek, then back to ghost over his mouth, before dropping between them. “There’s no one here but you and me.” She paused a moment, chewing on her lip. “And there’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

Ben’s large hand came up and cupped the side of her face, fingers pushing her hair back from her face. “I’m going to kiss you now,” he told her seriously, and Rey barely managed to smother another bubble of laughter before his lips met hers.

Rey had been kissed once before, years ago, before she went back to school, when her mother was still pressuring her to find someone, before relenting and pushing Rey to follow her dreams. Rey had a hazy memory of the face attached to the lips, but the thing she remembers most is that it was _wet_. This kiss was not. This kiss was gentle and light and a rush of joy against the fullness of his mouth and when he pulled away after what she thought was far too short a time for a kiss, Rey knew she wanted _more_. It felt as though she had been going hungry for all her life and didn’t realize it until this very moment.

“The seventh day of the seventh month is on Tuesday,” Ben said suddenly against her mouth.

“Ben, now is really not -”

“A date. Would you care to have dinner with me that evening?” He pulled away from her then, fingers carding gently through her hair as his thumb passed over the apple of her cheek. “What?” he asked, seeing her wide smile as she brought her own hand up to cover his.

“I knew it,” she whispered, thinking back to that summer all those years ago. “You’re a romantic. Don’t worry,” she continued quickly, seeing his mouth fly open as he pulled back to say something in return, “your secret is safe with me. We wouldn’t want to ruin that terrifying reputation you’ve built, now would we.” 

She tugged gently at him, drawing him back to her. “Do you remember when you worried that we were in your mother's library unsupervised?” She laughed against his lips when he kissed her hard to stop her teasing, but when he dragged his mouth away from hers to press kisses against her neck, she could feel him smiling. “I would love to have dinner with you Tuesday,” she told him, sinking fingers into his hair with a smile of her own as she watched the stars, some she had seen broken down into fragments of light in her perusal of classification, but still those twinkling heavenly lights called to her. 

“Come back.” She pulled at Ben, her hands still buried in his locks, until his face blocked out the sky. She took in his bright eyes and easy smile, easy to find in the darkness as he shifted above her, his hand splaying across her torso just under her breasts.

He blinked once, twice, chest heaving just enough to catch her notice. “Was that okay?” he asked sounding nervous, when she didn’t speak.

“Oh yes,” she rushed to answer, “but I think, I would very much rather you be a fine gent, and kiss me again,” she teased, a smile on her lips. His hand tensed on her body for a moment and he laughed quietly before he eased back down and claimed her mouth once more. Sighing against his mouth she could feel him as relaxed above her, body sinking down on to hers as they lost themselves to the kiss, to each other, and Rey knew she had spoken true before. Here laying beneath the stars in Ben’s wonderful embrace, there was truly nowhere she would rather be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! We have finally reached the end of this little tale. I had a (mostly) wonderful time writing it, and just wanted to leave a few notes for the more curious among you. First, you can find me on [tumblr,](https://hellomelusine.tumblr.com) and you can feel free to shout at me, but nice shouting, if you so wish. This story almost deserves its own bibliography, but I will _try_ to keep it simple.
> 
> If you can find it, Cosmos (with Neil Degrasse Tyson) episode 8 - Sisters of the Sun, starting around the 8 minute mark to get right into it, has a really wonderful segment on Annie Jump Cannon and the work that was going on in this story, but explained a million times better. There’s also this lovely, succinct entry from [Rejected Princesses](https://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/annie-jump-cannon).
> 
> If you don’t care for any of that, here’s a super barebones brief: Annie Jump Cannon, almost completely deaf, didn’t start working in her known field until she was in her 30’s and classified somewhere in the ballpark of 350,000 stars over her lifetime. She completely reimagined the classification system - one that is still mostly in place today. Most of the women who worked alongside Annie, did so without a degree, and were part of what was called ‘Pickering’s Harem’, they were paid barely anything for the work they did, something that never changed, and as far as I know, no one ever did try to change. Which means Rey’s dinnertime rant, while amazing, would have been super inaccurate for the time, as well as Ben's reaction in the following chapter. If it were true to the times he would have completely dismissed what she was saying, or even had a conversation about it.
> 
> In the first flashback the kids are looking at the Andromeda constellation, but Alpha Andromedae, specifically, is a Binary Star - the basis of Ben’s paper that Snoke stole (also that art in his office).
> 
> Rey’s words at the end are a blatant play on ‘Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me’- a mnemonic for remembering the star classification system. At times it has more letters/words because they added a few more classes to stars later on, but this is the original.
> 
> [Rey's dress](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/47/52/10/475210a6fca16c33c827afbe7fa10aa2.jpg) in chapter 1, [Rey's weekend dinner dress.](https://lookingbackatfashionhistory.tumblr.com/post/173847402662/evening-gown-maker-clergeat-maison-de) And here are some [star](https://goo.gl/images/np9vks) [plate](https://goo.gl/images/WG9Px6) [images.](https://goo.gl/images/JZf8mA)
> 
> I have so much more I could say or link, but I'll leave it at this for now. If you’ve got any questions, don’t hesitate to ask! I could literally talk about all of the little things in this forever and a day. Thank you all so, so much for reading, and for the love you've given this story.
> 
> Per Aspera Ad Astra - Through hardships to the stars.


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